Pain Is a Gift

I don’t remember much from my childhood—fragments lost to suppressing energy - a truth my brothers resent (but that’s a story for another day). Yet, one thing remains clear: "Pain is weakness leaving the body." This quote landed on the back of our soccer practice uniforms, a mantra meant to forge resilience.

Back then, I read those words with the fire of my ego, my masculine, human mind, and thought, "Fuck yeah!" I absorbed this “hard body” mentality, wore it like armor, and carried it into the world. And in many ways, it served me. It propelled me forward. It shaped me. I wore it well - literally - my beauty still drew people in. But I knew, deep within, that this was not my essence.

And now, I honor and welcome the version of me that sees beyond the armor but the armor still has a seat at the table.

But let’s return to the thought at hand.

As a collective, we have been taught to see pain in only two ways: as an adversary to be conquered or as a burden to be avoided. We are conditioned—whether through inherited beliefs, societal dogma, or ancestral wounds—to perceive pain as something to push through or something too heavy to hold. It has been ingrained in our DNA, woven into the very fabric of how we navigate life.

If we understand conditioning, then we also understand this: we have the power to unlearn. To deconstruct. To rewrite.

What if pain is not an enemy but an invitation? What if we release its assigned meaning and sit with it as nothing—a blank canvas upon which we choose to create? If this feels impossible, then welcome—a glimpse into the realm of freedom, the edge of choice. If it resonates, then let’s begin to shift the paradigm.

Pain, then, is no longer something to resist but something to embrace.

This human experience is sacred. We have been gifted the full spectrum of existence—emotion, sensation, thought, vision, language. To feel is a privilege. Pain, when viewed through this lens, is not a weight but a messenger. It is encoded with wisdom, offering us insight into the places within us that are calling for transformation.

Pain is the thread that weaves together timelines, guiding us to the parts of ourselves that seek integration in this very moment, in this very life. It is not a force to battle against, but a teacher revealing the path to transcendence.

Pain is not a curse. Pain is intel.

Pain is the map. The portal. The gift.

And if we are willing to listen, it will lead us exactly where we are meant to go.